1792 Luxor, Football, Cricket, Wallander, The Fixer, the Blackwater Lightship

Monday August 31st, a bank holiday in England and Wales to make the end of summer holidays and the commencement of the school terms commenced for me as my weekend had been so far. I remember having more sleep, wakings and dreams. I played a few of my standard games, chess, hearts and spider patience and then checked the TV for the day, confirmation hat Newcastle’s game was on Sky this evening late, the fourth occasion in a month compared to Sunderland once. I noted that there was a showing, yet again, of the first episode of Brideshead Revisited. Watching without the emotional involvement or reflections on my Oxford experience as a student and then in my first work after qualification, I was able to consider more the prose and that every word and every scene was carefully drafted to have a point, an effect as well as contributing the whole. I then watched part of Mr Deeds goes to Town to remind myself what the film is about and having remembered the story I was able to move on.

I was ready for some physical activity and returned the volumes ready for photography to the work room lounge from the front lounge. I then the cleared the three Christmas plants and the surrounding carpet strewn with the dead and decaying leaves and vacuumed the entire floor and the room is ready once more for the unexpected visitor and after a drink of diet coke and making these notes I was ready to commenced the final stage of the kitchen floor before luncheon I did not complete the task until later afternoon and a visit tot eh supermarket. On one hand that I did not need to but additional wood to surround is an achievement. The tears to the surface and the uneven aspect in a couple of areas is unfortunate but acceptable in the circumstances.

The evening I watched Newcastle entertain Leicester with a patch up side which include a young striker who rightly was given a standing ovation when taken off just before the end. He was confident and thoughtful, able to hold on to the ball as well as distribute the players with a better opportunity to score which in general they failed. New Newcastle scored the only goal of the match a thundering drive from distance after which they were largely in command although Leicester continued to fight and had opportunities. As a consequence of the win Newcastle are now two pints clear at the top of the division

Contrary to weather forecasts, Tuesday morning was sunny bright with some cloud when I woke in time to put out the general rubbish bin and the environmental box. I then moved to car on to the street to ensure access for an important day at cricket. I lingered longer than I should playing a shootem game called Luxor where my goal is to score over 500000 points having achieved 450000. Some notice up over 1.5million to I am still a beginner although I use a mouse rather than a joystick. I cooked some chicken wings for lunch, and prepared some crackers filled with the rest of the smoked salmon with fresh lemon. There was a pack of melon slices bought from Asda the previous afternoon and freshly made coffee where I had a quarter of a cup before departing having had a cereal mixture of muesli and cornflakes.

I arrive at the Riverside just as the players reached the field but missed the first ball where hero of the last games Thorp put down a difficult chance of the first ball from Graham Onions. Plunket had catch put down as did Ian Blackwell. However despite an excellent start from the Somerset openers, another extraordinary spell from Ian Blackwell 5 wickets for 7 runs saw the ten wickets fall for under 100 and as the visitors were all out for 174. Somerset appeared to have a great start when DiVenuto who fit two first off the first two balls was out for 20 and then captain Will Smith was out within a couple of balls. However Chanderpaul gave an exhibition of how to bat in such situation supported by Coetzer although her latter was out in the penultimate over with the total of 110 for the three wickets with Shiv Chanderpaul not out on 49 joined by former captain Benkenstein. I was joined on the boundary fencing during the morning by a Somerset photographer and we had a great chat lasting an hour which she took dozen of shots from her knew super digital camera. During the afternoon when I went to the Members lounge for tea and the watch the final moments of the transfer dealings in the Premiership, Ian Blackwell wife cam with her baby to greet one of the group of supporters from Somerset who over the tea interval had been offered a tour of ground as it is. The scheduled Member’s meeting was cancelled until the final one of the season at the end of September, Only the bad weather forecast wills top Durham from winning this match unless there is a batting collapse in the morning or Somerset find a way of combating the Durham bowling where in addition to the return of Harmison and Onions, Liam Plunket was on his best form of the season. I felt sorry for Davies who found himself as 12th man with Claydon and Stoneman having to make way for a full first team. However they are all part of the first eleven squad whose combination has brought the club to the verge of greatness.

Last night I watched an unexpectedly good British film which dealt with the subject of Aids and its impact on one family called The Blackwater Lightship, based on a Booker prize short listed novel by the Irish writer Colm Toibin. The story is about the relationship between three generations of women with the married sister of he Aids victim played by Gina McKee and the grandmother played by Angela Lansbury who received an Emmy for her performance. The sister who is a successful school Principal returns to her family community for the first time in over a decade to spend time with her dying brother at the home of the grandmother, and they are joined by the parent who a devout Catholic who cannot accept the homosexuality of her son and his homosexual carer. While the film covers the last days of life of the son its focus is on the relationship between Gina and her mother and what happened when they were placed in the care of their grandmother while their mother cared for their dying father. Gina has resented that their mother did not visit them during the period and had no other contact. In fact she had been advised to do so given the impending death. She had written daily however to the grandmother with passages for the children but this as not been mentioned by the grandmother who in turn has decided the children should be kept in ignorance of the situation and they had also not been allowed to attend the funeral, something which the son had resented. The son has returned to be cared for at the home of the grandmother because he feels she is less rejecting that his mother. The film ends as the son in his last moments turns to his mother and then daughter allows her mother into her life. I did not work out the significance of the film title except that Gina does a walk on the sea edge with a light house across the bay. We all see our experience from a particular perspective and the lighthouse with its all round beacon sees everything.

Someone with the name Tamzin Outhwaite was destined to be an actress. She made her national name in Eastenders when at the age of 28 she held the screen as the wife of Steve Owen played by Martin Kemp. She already had a successful career on the London stage when she appeared as a teenager, in other TV productions and film. She was given her own series Red Caps when she left and now as she approaches her forties I caught an episode of a series called The Fixer in which she supports licenced to kill operator who works along side the official police and security forces undertaking work for the government which the official bodies cannot handle. In the first of a two part series the main story concerns the growing trade in children across Europe and world wide for sex often involving violence. The British end is run by a man from his prison cell and his outside agent is a black gangster who uses his Barber’s shop to distribute drugs protected by paying the local police protection from prosecution money. He has a gang of young gun touting hoodies who think nothing of killing anyone who betrays or wishes to leave the community and Tamzin and the girl friend of one young man who wants to break away narrowly escape a bottle of thrown acid. The episode lacked credibility about a subject which should be of international concern.

The episode contrasted with the latest Wallander which has so far been unfailing in story content and acting. This time the crime concerned a recluse who lived simple with his dogs in a small cottage having sold his surrounding land for 20 million krona about £1.75 million or $2.75 million dollars. When the bank stops issuing pass books he withdraws the sum in cash which he buries under the dog kennel. He is murdered with the dogs as their food has been injected with a deadly substance used in cosmetic surgery and beauty treatments(Botox) The chief suspect is a cosmetic surgeon who is having an affair with the wife of the bank manager and who was in the bank on the day the money was withdrawn. When they are and their son are also murdered in the same way the suspect becomes the bank manager. However Wallander’s daughter believes her husband and her former police boyfriend are wrong and responsibility lays elsewhere. The focus moves to a young divorcee who works at a local store and operates as a skin care adviser who has lost her baby daughter in a cot death and who is given the care of the deceased family’s baby daughter where she is the god mother. She also acts as a paid babysitter undertaking the various jobs in order to pay for the apartment in the luxury block. The team recognise that she is a disturbed women but this does not prevent her attempt to poison the friend of the killed boy who discovers the three deaths when he visits in the morning but cannot disclose his finding to his parents until later in the day. He had the sense of someone else being in the apartment at the time. The disturbed young woman is tricked by Waller into confessing her crimes and the location of the money. His concern is to solve the crime accepting that the woman is in need of prolonged psychiatric help, possibly for the rest of her life. As with others in the series it is possible to highlight story fitting which would not be the situation in real life but the basics are authentic as is Wallander and police team. One issue is the ability of the Swedish police to interview suspects, albeit on tape but on their own and without the suspect being offered the attendance of a lawyer. It was a good day after a less than satisfactory weekend.

1191 England Win Rugby world cup; Arsenal Stadium Murders and Ladyhawke.

It was a great night with a great result. As the texts revealed afterwards English men and women all over the world listened or watched in disbelief, disappointment, growing hope and the wonderment. In sporting terms this was Dunkirk turned into victory.

Four years ago, Sir Clive, as he became, Woodward had created a settled winning side whose names had become known across the Rugby world. Winning the world cup became a strong possibility although whatever the result it was expected to be tight. One of the most iconic moments in all of British sporting history is the drop goal by Johnny Wilkinson in the final seconds has been replayed more than the famous moment in 1966 when the later Kenneth Wolstenholm uttered those immortal words, "they think it is all over, it is now," as the final goal sealed the victory.

The last four years has seen Johnny Wilkinson injured, recovering and never getting back to the phenomenal kicking ability which culminated in that glorious matching winning moment. He has however scored more points in World Cup Football than anyone else and his place in the cup squad offered a little hope after a Team in the process of rebuilding following a series of defeats and failures to come close to being champions again. It was all reminiscent of the Football world cup win forty year ago. When England crashed to South Africa 36.0 in the preliminary phase of the competition it was possible to get a bet on an English cup victory of 66 to 1. What price now?

The game against Australia could have been a one off, but the feeling was of another gruelling victory when we scored a try within seconds of the start, the quickest ever, the dream was underway, Still cautious we were gripped with feat as the French fought back with vigour and slowly took the lead, although this would not have been so if Johnny had succeeded in three opportunities to kick a goal, two most difficult. So the game drew to a close, and tense well there is tense and then again there is tense, but this was tense as we still believed in the dream, for once in a lifetime, if we are among the fortunate, we live the dream, and so it was. First the French were about to score a try which would have put the game out of reach hen stand in Joe Worsley, remember that name, stopped them win inches by one of those tackles that are only written about in Boy's own books, and then with five minutes to go, a penalty was awarded because of a high tackle on Jason Robinson and Wilkinson had a kick again to take the lead and of course we knew he would not fail, did we not? Didn't we? And he did not and then well there was an instant opportunity for a drop kick, but he seemed to move away, or so the commentator thought no he realised he was just getting into a better position and it happened again, the lightening striking twice I mean, he kicked that dropped goal again and now the French had to score a try and convert to win for we 14 points and we were 9.That was the measure of those two kicks and the commentator could no longer contain his delight bordering on ecstasy, and for a moment I thought he would say they think it is all over, now it is, but if he thought them, he kept his counsel because the French were not done and pressed back as if their national honour was at stake, well it was you see, but our men with their backs to wall as we need to be to bring out our best, stood firm in what appeared to be interminable minutes but were in fact only seconds, and that whistle came, and it was done, we had won.

But this is only the semi final, but by King Harry and St George, a any English person who was not there or does not understand will curse their ill fortunate for ever more. And it is just a week for the third and final part of this fantasy made into reality, along with Lewis Hamilton's an attempt to become world captainship driver and with Sunderland and Newcastle both on TV on the Sunday and the Monday it promises to be a weekend to remember.

So how did you celebrate will my experience was unique, of that I am certain, because it was just before ten that I remembered I had forgotten to get the first two parts of a 19 DVD series about the first world war given with the Mail. Now on Saturday the supermarkets close at 10 pm so they were out so it was likely to be a garage. It was two minutes past ten when I decided not to stop at Azda and while there was every other paper at the garage by Mabel's former residential home, there was no mail, and the garage on the way to Cleadon village did not have papers and that in the village was closed so I decided one last try at the end of the A1M, and there were two copies and I only needed one and a small bar of chocolate and one of two custard creams.

So to day was destined to be anti climax especially after getting up with the dawn and making ready for the new cooker and then the phone call calling it off, so I spent the day with rubbish TV as a consolation and over eating and drinking, mostly water though as this morning I had two bacon rolls in baked onion and cheese topped rolls, and this afternoon half a piece of gammon joint £1.25p worth with potatoes and corn and a deep sleep in between the most awful film about sport and football ever called The Arsenal Stadium Murders made in 1940's although the film had a significance for me because it was as I remembered going to the ground in the late 1940's with the uncovered standing terraces at either end when I stood with an uncle to watch Stanley Matthews in a 4.4 draw, which then reminded of the day I watched Sir Donald Bradman come to the wicket and return being out first ball in his last innings in his last Test match in England. With regard to the film which featured a special charity match between the Gunners now called the Gooners and an ammeter team one of whom dies poisoned on the pitch it should be compulsory viewing for all professional footballers and their wives as to why they should thank their talent and lucky stars. . Several Arsenal stars played for the home side and Brentford players doubled for the amateurs on the pitch and this was the last arranged fixture before the outbreak of World War II. The investigating police inspector has a penchant for funny hats and for theatricals in which his colleagues dress up in tutus

After the sleep I watched a beautifully photographed medieval family fantasy Ladyhawke in which Michele Feiffer played the cursed love destined to be only a Hawk in the presence of her lover until the curse is lifted with the help of Matthew Brodericke and Leo Mckern. I had watched the film before and therefore that I was still full of sleep helped my anticlimactic recovery.

Passing thought I did say Gordon needed several miracles and a faultless personal performance from now if he and his political party are to recover. A Rugby World Cup plus Lewis Hamilton and Formula One driver could be the start.

And thus the day commenced to peter out until in the evening there was Michael Plain had been in the Baltic states and the Russian Naval outpost country 16 of his European tour so far.

Followed by the discovery of another Dylan evening of homage to him and to folk music. Some I had seen before I am not sure about composite black and white film of thee Newport Folk Festival 1963 1966, which I viewed twice featuring the folk side (after the Jazz on a Summers Day film which I had seen in 1960 on the day after the end of the prison experience.

Among those appearing with Bob Dylan where I had been listening recently to a two disc set, so it was good to see and well has hear versions of` Blowing in the Wind, The Times they are a changing, Its all over now Baby Blue, Like a Rolling Stone Maggie's Farm some in the later programme on his first England visit, also Joan Baez with Peter? Yarrow doing a comic number and then being herself Oh my trials lord soon be over and that tingling excitement came back as it always does for voice which could make the phone book sound revelatory truths and Peter Paul and Mary (If I had a hammer, sung for hours walking from Liverpool to Hull) and Blowing in the wind and the times they are changing, the Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers which reminded me of Irish Dancing, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, there is a time, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, ( I woke up this morning) encountered on a day long river boat trip down the Thames to Margaret Buffy St Marie, (I have four of her DVD's because she is amazing and unrecognised I suspect because of her American Indian origin.
Donovan with his banned from BBC song, Howling Wolf and thirty to forty others Spider John Koeg I liked, and Mississippi John Hurt with Candy Man, the Staple Singers. The Freedom Singers. and in London on the recovery of his TV Madhouse programme appearance in the mid sixties ice bound London with an except from Acker Bilk having returned from the US with Stranger of Shore success, followed by Pete Seager, (Green Corn Eugene McCall who married Peggy Seager. With Odetta in Rome who is also in the later Newport film with a deep voice

1183 Bourne Ultimatum, Stockyard Channing, Three Came Home, Little Richard, Churchill's Bodyguard.

A very different kind of personality from Billy Bob Thornton is Stockyard Channing; you know the young woman who plays alongside John Travolta and Olivia Newton John in Grease. Stockyard is her maiden surname name. What I had forgotten is that Stockyard's major work is a play which became a film. Six degrees of separation. This is the concept that if everyone is one step away from each person you know, you are then two steps away from each person they know, then it can be demonstrated that we are all six steps away from everyone in the world.

In 1994 this concept was applied by two students to the actor Kevin Bacon through connecting him to other actors through no more than six connections, and which was then taken up by Kevin Bacon develop a network of involvement in charities and that we all can be connected to accomplish something good. In 2006 a TV series was launched in the USA with covers the experiences of six New Yorkers who go about their lives without realising they are affecting each other and gradually meet one another. From the except of the film, it is immediately added to the must see list and I did not understand why I did not see it when it was released until I remember the date 1993, the year when I completed the writing of a novel. It is not a valid excuse but the novel could have been that much better had I viewed the film. A belief I will put to the test. I commenced one piece of recent writing "There was Adam and there was Eve, and you and me and we are all connected. There is nothing original left to say, except in the way it is retold.

I have seen the Stockyard Channing Actor's studio interview before but watched it recently again with increased intensity and awareness. I had come to know her acting from the West Wing as the President's wife, but never made the connection with Grease.

I have also viewed Little Richard the about 2000 made for TV biopic although his life had previously interested me because of the lifelong raging conflict between his religious upbringing and beliefs and his success as a rock and roll singer and being part of that sometimes murky underworld where Brittney Spears in the USA and Amy Winehouse in the UK are the present day descendents.

Little Richard is in fact Richard Wayne Penniman born seven years before me whose father was a bootlegger and his grandfather an evangelical preacher, thus the eternal conflict between good and evil between the spirit and the flesh, and between the church goer and rock and roller were established in him through his genes and his nurturing. Leaving aside the bootlegging his was a spiritual family, part of a group of singers at churches called the Penniman Singers and it is said that from the earliest age Richard was known for his loud screaming singing voice which became his trademark. He is the second individual, one a MySpace friend who was influenced in their childhood by Sister Rosetta Sharp a Gospel singer whose LP I bought as a young man just out of school and have to this day. Another was Mahalia Jackson who I believe featured in the amazing Jazz on film work Jazz on a Summer's Day which I first saw on the first full day after being in prison for six months.

Now Little Richard is known for his songs such as Tutti Fruiti, Lucille, Long Tall Sally, and the Girl Can't Help it, from the film of the same name and for the fact that at the height of his career in 1957 while on tour in Australia he stopped overnight and became a born again Christian, studied and became a preacher himself. Between the later 1950's and early 1960's when I had become a political and social activist and then went into university level further education while he also performed and issued new records these were of Gospel music, a period which is truncated in the film, but my the mid sixties he was persuaded to six again his former his and this led him back to the lifestyle which went with it. Since then he has swung between the extremes of his life and significantly from my viewpoint the is someone else who has worked out that everyone is a mixture of good and evil, sinner and saintliness and that those painted all black or all white may be towards one end of the spectrum but they are never all one or all the other, something which the early Christians leaders ensured was included in their written life of Christ and of the Apostles.

Little Richard is generally regarded as one of the most influential and significant of the first Rock and Rollers with artists such as Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Jimmie Hendrix all proclaiming him as the greatest influence on their work. The Beatles opened the show for one Little Richard Tour while Jimmy Hendrix another. Billy Preston became a protégé and White Supremacists persuaded Pat Boone to release a number of covers which led to the comment that young people had Boone records on their players to satisfy their parents and Little Richard originals under their beds.

Shortly after the death of my mother I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum, having previously watched the first two films of the trio in cinema, and then back to back on a TV channel so that it was possible to make an evaluation of the series to-date. I say to-date because it is evident from the ending of the new film that a fourth remains a possibility. The Bourne Ultimatum is the back story for the other two, and tells how he was recruited as a volunteer, knowing what was to happen to him. However the story is also brought vividly into contemporary American hypocrisy as the focus is the discovery that within the CIA there is a high level chain which not only disregards the rule of law and the US constitution to execute terrorists and anti American interests, but the ultimate crime, Americans and members of the CIA are executed or attempted executions for not going along with the policy. I was left with the distinct impression that what they were doing would have been OK as long as they had not started to get rid of their own. However the film is good fun with prolonged noisy car and other chases which has become a feature of some films and which enable me to doze off having seen it all before.

A very different kind of film was watched yesterday on TV called Three Came Home made in 1950 and starring Claudet Colbert. It is a film I am likely to have seen at the Odeon Wallington with my mother and the two sisters when I lived with them as my aunties. It features a family who are part of the civilian administration of somewhere in the East who are required to surrender to Japan and placed in nearby prison camps and which is brilliantly portrayed in the series Tenko and A Town Like Alice. Produced just after the war Three Came Home has a highly contrived ending which undermines the truth of all that went on before with its happy o all happy endings. The film emphasises the dependency that most wives had on their husbands with the consequence of what happens to the women when there is enforced separation? The answer is that that they quickly realise that they are not only just as strong, as their men folk, I suspect even stronger, on the issues that matter such as caring and protecting their children, but quickly develop ways of coping and surviving for themselves. Not all did of course but that has always been so for all people, irrespective of their age, colour and gender, but the majority do, unless they are wiped out at a stroke, as in this film when the wife and children of the POW island/area commander learns that having moved his family out of Tokyo for their safety they are obliterated at Hiroshima I thought the film was amazingly honest about English and Japanese attitudes and behaviour, considering its time, although it did stereotype the Australian POW's as I want to get into your knickers regardless of age or looks.

I also managed to catch one of the final if not the final episode of the series of films based on the full memoirs of Churchill's Bodyguard which also chronicles Churchill's role in the world war. In this episode his successful effort to end the civil war in Greece and create a non communist administration is covered together with the infamous Yalta conference in which Churchill and the UK was sidelined and Roosevelt effectively surrendered much of middle and eastern Europe to Russia because he trusted the word of Stalin and feared the ambitions of Churchill. I must find out if this was true. For me the most important aspect of the film was to learn that over 1000 V2 ballistic rockets were dropped on the UK until the German Army was pushed back the 200 miles beyond their range. The programme brought out how the first rocket bombs were put down to gas explosions although it was never explained why the rest of the gas supply was never affected. The government feared the loss of morale would affect the willingness to cope with further loss of life, one has only to see public reaction to the deaths of professional soldiers and airmen Iraq and Afghanistan now to appreciate the government viewpoint then. However when the truth was released in the USA media the public resolve in the UK continued. A lesson for modern day politicians.

1178 Inside the Actor's Studio and Mario Lanza

Inside the Actors Studio is the most important programme series on television for anyone who wants to be involved in performance, acting, directing and performance writing as it provides the opportunity to experience something of the lives of those who have become successful. Over what must be the past thirteen years 200 major personalities have been interviewed by, the Dean Emeritus of the Drama school, founded by Lee Strasbourg, James Lipton.

The alumni of the school include Edward Albee, Carroll Baker, James Baldwin Anne Bancroft Ellen Barkin Marlon Brando, Lee J Cobb, Montgomery Clift, Jack Nicholson SI, Robert de Nero SI, James Dean, James Fonda , Dustin Hoffman SI Harvey Keitel, Martin Landau SI, Diane Ladd, Karl Madden, Norman Mailer, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman SI, Al Pacino SI, Geraldine Page, Sidney Poitier, Mickey Rourke, Rod Steiger, Christopher Walken, SI Gene Wilder SI, Tennessee Williams, Shelley Winters SI , Joanne Woodward SI. (SI = Seen interview). An impressive list of names but they represent only a small percentage of thousands of students whop despite talent, ability, determination and years of effort never become the household name which will one see themselves being interviewed.

I have benefited from experiencing something of the lives and work of Ben Affleck, Alan Alda, Lauren Bacall, Antonio Banderas, Kim Bassinger, Roseanne Barr, Drew Barrymore, Kathy Bates Juliet Binoche, Kate Blanchette, Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Burstyn, James Caan, Nicholas Cage, Michael Caine, Stockyard Channing, Glenn Close Jennifer Connolly, Francis Ford Copola, Kevin Costner Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Billy Crystal, Matt Damon, Geena Davis. Cameron Diaz, Johnny Depp, Michael Douglas, Richard Dreyfus, David Duchovny, Faye Dunaway, Clint Eastward, Peter Falk, Sally Field, Ralph Fiennes, Laurence Fishbourne, Harrison Ford, Jodi Foster, Michael J Fox, Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman, James Gandolfini, Andy Garcia, Richard Gere, Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, John Goodman. Melanie Griffiths, Gene Hackman, Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, (2) Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins, Dennis Hopper, Angelica Houston, Ron Howard, Helen Hunt, Holly Hunter, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, Samuel Jackson, Billy Joel, Elton John, Angelina Jolie, Tommy Lee Jones, Val Kilmer, Ben Kingsley, Jessica Lange, Queen Laifah, Hugh Laurie, Jude Law, Jack Lemmon, Jerry Lewis, Jennifer Lopez, Sidney Lumet, Jeanne Moreau, Shirley MacLaine, Ian McKellen, Bette Midler, Arthur Miller, Liza Minnelli, Mary Tyler Moore, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers (2) Mike Nicholls, Gwyneth Paltrow Arthur Penn, Sean Penn Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Quaid, Anthony Quinn, Robert Redford, Christopher Reeve, Venessa Redgrave, Burt Reynolds, Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts, Chris Rock, Diana Ross, Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Martin Scoresee, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Neil Simon, Will Smith, Kevin Spacey, Sissy Spacek, Steven Speilberg, Stephen Sondheim, Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Barbara Striesand, Sylvester Stallone, Ben Stiller, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlize Theron, John Travolta, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Williams, Kate Winslet Forrest Whittaker, Debra Winger, James Woods, Renee Zellweger. This is about 160 of the 200 on the programme series to-date.

A subjective reflection is that the subjects fall into three broad categories; those with showbiz family connections, those that had one or both parents giving 100% encouragement and those who made it the hard way, some times the very hard way and confirming problems which has kept the media industry producing endless copy.

The interviews all have the same structure. Lipton sits to one side of the stage with the invited personality at its centre, before the college, and invited guests. He has meticulously researched each life, often unnerving the subject by knowledge which could only have come from a close relative or friend. He has a little box of prepared note cards. The television edition is an edited version of the full interview after which there is a session in which the performer answer questions from the students, with sometimes one or two of these being shown. During each programme there will be occasional sots of the audience and it is evident that each time the camera is seen to focus however intense the involvement the student is ready to project their essence into that moment.

Each interview concludes with what is a bizarre and idiosyncratic interest of James Lipton in which he uses a questionnaire, originally devised by Bernard Privot, originally devised by Proust, This rarely adds to the rest of the programme, but serves as a way of ending by treating every subject in similar manner. The order of questions is not as in the programme. The questions: Favourite word (yes) Least Favourite word (no) Favourite sound (all clear) least favourite sound (bomb/rocket warning siren), which job would you like to have done (poet, writer, talk show host) which would you would not like to do (government assassin) favourite cuss word (shit) What turns you on (creatively emotionally, spiritually? (A cloudless sky on a warm day). What do you want God to say when you reach the gates of heaven, (you made it I did not expect that would). It is doubtful if the series would have attained its present level of success, rarely off a Satellite channel, without the personality of James Lipton, a poet and writer who enjoys performing before the camera and being tattooed. When he interviewed Juliet Binoche in Paris, a rare and I believe the only instance of an interview outside of the USA, his friend the Minister of Culture had arranged for him to receive a national cultural award.

This morning after waking, washing up, preparing lunch and the rest of my day I watched again the interview with Nicholas Cage. These are programme which merit and are given undivided attention. I have some video tapes which I have watched several times, but these days one of the series is usually reappearing on a Satellite or Cable channel having first appeared on the Bravo network. Presently they are on the Performance channel, with tomorrow previously seen Drew Barrymore while the adjacent new channel Mainstreet, at one I cannot remember seeing before, is showing, the Simpsons and Charlie Sheen over the next 24 hours. Now from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The day at the hospital commenced with a minor disappointment after having secured the 3rd to 5th place on the Hangman game, My mother's initials had been replaced by a newcomer with scores I knew I would be unable to match or exceed. I investigated the other games and to great delight found that the Coronation Street game was a variation of Hangman. In this instance the game is limited by only having 9 attempts to correctly identify the letters of the phrase or required word. However you cannot get wrong the answer to individual choice of three answer questions, because if you do the game ends. You can avoid the situation by asking Ken Barlow for help and he will oblige with either the correct answer or reducing the options from three to two. In addition the same few seconds is allowed for each decision It is therefore not surprising that no one exceeded 3000 points during the previous 7 days and in fact one was above 2500 and two were under 1000. I fancied our chances and was quickly rewarded with the fifth place then second, 4th and 5th, although I was pushed down from second to third at one point. However as the evening ended I had successfully achieved the top two spots and the 4th and 5th, thus the screen glowed with four of five initials, although alas the camera was not to hand to make a confirmatory record and who knows what the position will be tomorrow, or in fact today as the piece is reviewed and revised.

Earlier I had watched the Ladies put up a good first half performance against the USA in the quarter finals of the World Cup but then lost three goals and were on their way home. I was impressed by the extent to which they have started to play at the same level of organisation as their senior male counterparts and it was not surprising to learn that the USA has performed before a crowd of 90000, or play male teams, sometimes successful, when they lack effective female opposition. Apparently female success has taken off in more than a big way in the USA than the male teams where American football continues to reign supreme. Beckham or no Beckham.

And then listened to an exciting old fashion derby in which Sunderland scored within two minutes and got a draw with two minutes to go. Neither manager appeared happy with performances which were all about blood and gut and just what the supporters want. Arsenal showed the Toon what they should have done to Derby winning 5,0 but Birmingham held Liverpool to a draw at Anfield.

Yesterday I enjoyed Mario Lanza for the second time in a week, the life of Enrico Caruso. The film is a very fictionalised account of his life. This reminds that I used to have an original wind up gramophone recording as I had of he Peace in our Time speech. Where are they now. If still in the unpacked boxes from the move hey are likely to have become warped. I deem to remember putting them somewhere safe. In the Mario Lanza film, Enrico appears to die from failure to give attention to a cough and the excessive sue of ether whereas it was from peritonitis, due to the bursting of an abscess. Mario was well cast having the same large chest bulk and like Enrico he also died a comparative young man. He at the age of 38 Caruso at 49. There may have been some truth that Caruso only married shortly before his death because his first love married another when he was unknown and poor. It is also accurate that he his bride was half his age but to suggest that he married someone who he liked as a young girl as soon as she was able to do so cannot be true as his bridge was 25 when they married and a widow at 28. It was my Aunty Harriet more than my mother who adored Mario Lanza although I did go with them to see some of his films. The Great Caruso when I was moving from preparatory school and Because you are mine a year later. I was at work and went on my own to see the Student Prince in 1956 and bought the Long Play Record , one of my first, and which I have and still play to this day 50 years later. Fifty years later that is an extraordinary concept as writing it down it seems like yesterday. Mario made the recording before making the film which was just as well because he had put on so much weight that the studio cast Edmund Purdom to play his role and dubbed Mario's voice. Less than a decade later I visited Heidelberg in Austria as part of my tour of Europe in three weeks, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France and during which time I also drank beer at a festival in the Black Forest, had an accident involving a cyclist in Italy, which broke th windscreen but fortunately did not injure anyone otherwise I would have been locked up, did I shoot glide on the Italian motorway on the way back from Naples, where I had a horse drawn carriage ride with a wren stationed at Malta, whose friends parents I had encountered while driving up Vesuvius while they drove down, attending the Naples Film Festival after my companion posed as President of the Oxford Film Festival, accompanied by two beautiful English roses whose car boot my companion had fixed at a campsite in Rome and who and then joined us in the South, and mentioning Rome I had arrived as the Pope was about to give public audience outside of St Peters, and managed to buy a Cross and a statue from a shop in one corner so that they could be give his Papal blessing and which I am about to collect from the residential home where they were with my mother until her admission to hospital six weeks ago.

1638 Revolutionary Road Day

Thursday morning 12th February 2009 and it has snowed continuously since just after 9am. My first inclination had been had been to go out for the Daily Main British War Film DVD and a bacon roll and coffee breakfast, and then to the cinema and weekend shop, or shop and cinema. I hesitated and decision to check out My Space Blogs where a problem had developed uploading new postings and then reading and printing them. They were now scrolling sideways for a great width and then if printed only the first section was reproduced. Later I reported the problem which appeared to be a general problem and as such odd that something working perfectly had suddenly gone awry. Then the snow started and I considered abandoning the plan, staying in and catching up.

I wanted to recheck my posting on Google. Nine so far, a mixture of current Blogs and revisits after working on La Dolce Vita all day and evening yesterday, watching the film through and then watching every few seconds by few seconds checking dialogue, and then remembering that I had an English translation of the Italian script somewhere and then used this alongside the subtitles which only covered about fifty percent of what was beings aid. I do not recall ever devoting so much time to a film or theatre piece before but it was an interesting and rewarding activity although I am getting more and more behind in the planned work programme for the week. I decided to recheck the posting this morning and found several errors. This led me to checking the other posting and deciding on a different approach to printing out so that instead of the ongoing reel, I printed postings individually and although pleased with the outcome, time moved on and I suddenly realised I had not checked that both Doubt and Revolutionary Road were being shown next week--that is from Friday. Alas this was last day of Revolution Road at Bolden with the Empire Sunderland showing later evening. Moreover there was an 11.50 showing but by the time I got myself ready I would not get there in time especially with they roads as they were likely to be. I decided on the 2.40 showing and a lunch of pork chop, tinned new potatoes and peas followed by a banana, a hot cross bun and coffee. There was also time to check emails and respond to one, printing others and buying three lottery tickets for the Euro draw this Friday. I watched Bargain Hunt and you could tell it would be a disaster because the small auction room was not well filled with no telephones or internet showing. It was then time to brave the outside, apprehensively.

I was able to park close to the Tesco Supermarket entrance making use of the free car park to buy the Daily Mail and obtain the DVD and then continue along the Newcastle Road to the Tyne Tunnel Bolden Motorway which was bound to be in better condition than other routes, and from there it was just a couple of roundabouts to the cinema, restaurants and supermarket site. I do not usually take this entrance to the complex, although once familiar when I lived at Seaburn Sunderland and where I have had meals at the Story Book restaurant public house to one side of the entrance roadway It has boasted two for one meals with prices to match but now an additional sign has been added many main meals for £3.49, a development I will investigate on another visit. On Thursday I wanted to shop at the Wall-Mart before the film.

The countryside has looked pretty covered in snow but now on foot, protected by strong boots the slosh and slush was unpleasant especially as snow continued to fall. There were no more punched pockets in stock, I must check local store, At least I remembered to bring two of the reusable bags. I was after onions and tomatoes, and collected some prawns in shell on way to tinned veg where I need to restock and with tinned and packet soup. I had to ask an assistant where the apple sauce was located together with pickle, having passed the shelves getting something on the other side of the aisle. I would soon be out of olives and bought two large jars, one of Queen olives and one stuffed with pimento. I bought two jars of apple sauce and two small jars of chutney to eat on crackers for a tea or late evening/early hours snack. There was time to get some salad dressing and sauces for Stir Fry all to be used sparingly and not on every occasion. There was also time, regretfully to partake of the three for £2 sweet offer, some chocolate covered peanuts and toffee mixture which was to result in losing a filling the following day, an expensive toffee, quite apart from not making the kind of progress that I need in what I eat, and do not. There was also two packs of Hot Cross buns before getting the two packs of frozen roast potatoes, a bread and butter pudding a toffee cheesecake.

Everything was timed to perfection as I arrive at the cinema with a couple of minutes to spare before the programme commenced. I strode purposefully across the carpet and then on taking a step to the small strip of tiling before the ticket desks, I slipped and fell down but fortunately this only involved a loss of dignity, but emphasised the need for caution. Although I attempted to clean the bottom of the boots on the entrance mat they were obviously still wet.

On Friday I discovered that in fact the film continues to be shown with day time showings. I shared the experiences of Revolutionary Road with two sets of chatty couples within my generation, who ought to have known better, a solitary woman and a couple who brought their pre school child for the experience. That was interesting and I spent some of the film wondering what had attracted them and how they were reacting.

It is difficult to know who will find Revolutionary Road enjoyable!

The film is set in the mid 1950’s out city New York with scenes filmed in various locations in Connecticut as well as Grand Central Station and a city office block. It can be argued that the original novel by Richard Yates was intended as a major swipe not at conventionality as such but the conformity which had swept middle America, in part as a reaction to World war II. It is an odd fact that a nation of genuine individualists, anti government and anti communism should have developed the notion of creating suburbs full of similar looking houses with model couples and their two children, with the husbands expected to work hard during the week, doing DIY jobs, mowing the lawn, cleaning the car and taking the family to Church on Sundays. The female in the relationship was expected to stay home to look after the children, develop friends with other mothers through school and immediate neighbours

There is nothing wrong with such a life for those who are comfortable, merging their identity as a couple, family and neighbourhood and indeed society would become a much more difficulty place if there were not large numbers able to be satisfied with such a life, and it could be argued that much of the present ills are the result of more and more people finding this form of life unacceptable to them.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo De Caprio effectively destroy the notion of never ending romantic love created with the Titanic, also directed by Kate’s husband, Sam Mendes. The couple met at a party, and Kate an aspiring actress college student finds Leo, also a college student but post World War II wartime experience the most interesting man she has ever met.

The film opens several years later when the couple have settled in a suburb with their two children. Leo works for the same firm as his father who was an office machine salesman with Leo working in Headquarters Administration. Leo attends an amateur production of a poor play, with a poor cast at which Kate is also not very good. She is angry with herself and as is common in normal relationships she takes it out on him on the return journey home, but in part out of kindness and in part because she is being unfair he cannot fit in with her mood and reacts at the unfairness of how she is treating him. The interaction becomes more destructive.

This has not been the first exchange of this nature between the couple but it precipitates change. Leo plays a character who is prepared to settle for what he has despite his basic discontent. He hates his job remembering both the fear and the excitement of going into battle and visiting Paris when everyone was living for the present. His experience reminded me immediately of when in my first work at the age of sixteen I was attached to a section of six men, one who had served in the First World War and had lost part of a leg and the other five all served in Second, two were airmen, one naval and two army. It was during evenings in which they worked to obtain a tea and dinner allowance, writing motor vehicle licence renewals that they revealed their dis-satisfaction with their post war existence and future prospects, encouraging me to do something different.

Kate also admits her problem in that she only felt “alive” the first time they had sex, Kate decides that they will go to Paris. She will get a well paid secretarial job at a European institution and he will have time to find out what he really wants to do with the rest of his life. The children are young enough to adapt although the daughter expresses anxiety at losing her fiends and not being able to take her major toys with her. Everything is planned, including sailings to take place after the summer in September. They find passion together again and Leo becomes more confident, gate happy, while Kate enjoys the idea of the change, and shocking friends with the news. The closest neighbour someone who introduced Kate to the property and who has a son who has become a resident in a psychiatric hospital. She asks Kate to assist by meeting him and in the first of two catalytic scenes they find the young a speaker of surgical truth fully in tune with their predicament and thrilled that they have found a way of escape
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But then four developments change everything. Leo fires off an idea to a branch of the company which so impresses that his work is drawn to the attention of a senior Director planning to set up a new company to promote the use of computers, then large glorified adding machines and primitive data base systems, reminding of my own experience trying to sell Olivetti manual adding machines, the summa 45, as a junior office salesman in 1959. He is offered more money and bright future. To celebrate this development and his birthday he takes a secretary from the pool out to lunch, gets her drunk and into her bed. Returning home full of guilt he finds his wife children with a surprise birthday party. Then Kate misses her periods and delays telling him, planning to try and abort the child if the pregnancy is confirmed. She still wants to go but realises Leo does not. She has sex with the husband of their best friends, he admits to being in love with her but for Kate it is an act designed to confirm that she no longer loves her husband or wishes to be with him.

The second social event with the son of their neighbour fills their open wounds with salt and vinegar as truth upon truth shatters the last remnants of self deception and the slimiest of bond holding them together, and Kate goes off and will not be brought back with Leo fearing the relationship have severed beyond repair. However in the morning she is in the kitchen having prepared his favourite breakfast and appears to have reconciled to her new situation. While Leo is at the office accepting the new job He accepts the job offered by one of the Executives and the offer of the secretarial pool girl to have sex again, Kate tries to abort the child and dies.

Leo makes a success of his new job and becomes a model father of the two children outside of working hours. The husband of their former friends tells his wife that he does not want to talk about them again after she starts to gossip with their new friends who have taken over the property. Similarly the woman who introduced them to the neighbourhood is redefining her opinion while her husband turns off his hearing aid.

The film is a brilliantly accurate description of the dilemmas and conflicts experienced by all mature educated individualists during their marriages when family life comes to dominate and overwhelm, whether either or both partners are satisfied with their occupational activity or attracted by others. It does not appeal to the High School, Iron Man, Friday the 13th audience. It will not appeal to the majority of married couples unless they have experienced and resolved their particular difficulties. It could be the experience which destroys some relationships which brings me back to the young couple and their pre school child. Why were they there and what impact did the film have on their lives?.

In the evening I watched the next episode in the travels of Piers Merchant to places full of wealth and power. This time is to Hollywood where he has become part of The current British import joining Sharon Osborn as Mr Nasty in America has got talent. He goes out to her new home with a giant pool and glorious views over to mountains and countryside to escape the paparazzi since their former home burnt down. She admits to the head and face work, the new teeth and breasts, the latter she does not like and the rest essential if she is to remain on TV. Piers does the round of other Brits from the Actor who stared in the Horatio Hornblower TV films but who us yet to be given a part along with his successful English wife, similarly a successful British TV series actor who also has not worked in TV or USA made films but and earns his living arranging moves to Hollywood for other Brits. Then there is The British would be actor who made it big as an interior designer, charging $100000 up front plus percentage of subsequent expenditure and who is now staring in popular soap as an interior designer to the stars. And so he went the rounds including Vinnie Jones. There was said to be 500000 actors scriptwriters and other film maker all trying to make the big time in Hollywood and one port of call was the successful British publicist who was able to showed the photos taken of when Piers met up with Sharon Vinnie and others for lunch and was immediately filmed by the Paparazzi and where the photos appears on the internet all over the world with the question what is going on, what project are they up to? Is no one happy with what they do and how they are out there?